Jón Thoroddsen 200th Anniversary

Jón Thoroddsen (1818-1868) was a county magistrate and writer, known for having written the first modern Icelandic novel, “A Boy and a Girl”. Jón was born at Reykhólar in the northwest of Iceland. He studied law at the University of Copenhagen and became the magistrate of the district of Barðaströnd in the Westfjords. Jón did not exert much influence on his countrymen’s social and political life although he associated with some of the foremost among them. In 1848-1850 he wrote “A Boy and a Girl”, a story of young people in love. The supporting characters such as the gossipmonger Gróa at Leiti and the penny-pincher Bárður at Búrfell were beloved by the Icelandic audience. The novel was written under the influence of contemporary writers, such as Charles Dickens and Walter Scott. Jón became a magistrate in the county of Borgarfjörður in 1862. In 1865 he worked on a new novel which he called “A Man and a Woman”. Jón only managed to finish two thirds of this novel before passing away. Both his novels are romantic love stories set in the Icelandic countryside.